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December 2004/January 2005 |
Volume 45, Number 3 |
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Client Usability Testing Opportunity at CU Denver, Spring 2005This coming semester (beginning January 2005) the M.S. in Technical Communication Program at the University of Colorado at Denver will again offer a semester-length course in Usability Testing (at the graduate level). For the Spring 2005 course we are inviting both public and private sector organizations to participate. We invite such organizations to provide actual documents, software, and/or other technology for which they would like user-testing and related comprehensibility evaluations to be performed in our usability testing lab or at client sites. In past offerings we have provided valuable usability testing for diverse clients, including (among others) TargetSmart, Inc. (specializing in marketing software), General Electric (EMS software), National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) Website, BioStar (manufacturers of human virus detection equipment), DigitalMed, the Colorado Water Board, and J. D. Edwards Company (specializing in accounting software), among others. One of the areas we emphasize in our M.S. curriculum, and that we particularly focus in this course, is the testing and improvement of a broad range of online/interactive and hard copy documentation and instructional material, including (but not limited to) such things as:
Note that we are interested both in consumer-type documents as well as documents for more specialized audiences/technicians. We are equally interested in online and traditional hard-copy documents, and in electro-mechanical as well as computer technology documentation. All experimental participants that we recruit must sign client non-disclosure agreements as well as participation consent forms for the university. Organizations who participate are also required to sign a written letter of agreement with the department and students at CU-Denver. Organizations must provide monetary support for securing and paying user-test participants and for transcribing audio and/or video data (if such data is produced). There is also a one-time nominal participation contribution of US $1,000.00, which helps support upgrades in our usability test lab facilities and provides scholarships for students enrolled our technical communication program. While it is difficult to provide an exact estimate of your total costs, you should know that historically, it has been far lower than the minimum costs for professional usability services in the Denver, Colorado and Front Range area. Past clients have also been impressed with the professional-level quality of testing done by our students and the opportunity to work with a university community committed to researching the latest methods in usability testing. If you or your organization thinks you might be interested in participating, please contact me, Dr. James Stratman, at the email address or telephone phone number below. I am happy to provide pertinent details and answer questions. Sincerely,  |
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